This invention relates generally to cleaning devices, and more particularly to devices for spot cleaning swimming pools and other chambers containing water or other liquids.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,474 (Woodard) there is disclosed a vacuum head for a swimming pool cleaning system. The head is of the bristle-type for use particularly on vinyl liners, and the like, and comprises a wide, substantially shallow structure including an elongated top, walls and an outlet oriented upwardly from the top and communicating with the generally hollow interior of the head. The upright outlet forms a first connection for attachment of a vacuum hose to the head. A second hose of a diameter smaller than that of the first hose may be detachably positioned over an adapter member which is removably fitted within the first hose connection. Suction control in the form of at least one water by-pass valve is provided in the head top, enabling water sucked into the head interior to be selectively released therefrom, thereby preventing an excessively high suction force in the head intake area and such a force resulting from too great a build-up of vacuum within the cleaning system. Fixedly secured to the head top inner surface are a pair of axially opposed stabilizing weights and a connection for attachment of a handle or pole is provided at the top outer surface.
Other patents relating to devices for cleaning swimming pools are: U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,474 (Randall), U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,320 (Linda) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,086 (Goode).
While the aforementioned prior art devices may be suitable for their intended purposes they nevertheless leave something to be desired from one or more of the standpoints of simplicity of construction, easy of use and effectiveness. For example, some of such prior art devices when used to vacuum up finely dispersable debris, e.g., a dead algae pile, frequently create a cloud of such debris since the vacuum action is itself dispersed. To overcome that drawback of the prior art, persons cleaning pools have sometimes resorted to using the pole of a conventional pool vacuum head system, without the vacuum head, by merely attaching the distal end of the pole to the open distal end of the conventional vacuum hose via tape, e.g., duct tape. While such an arrangement enables effective spot vacuuming, the use of tape is undesirable and does not provide an elegant solution, e.g., untaping and retaping is messy, and time consuming.